M Street Kitchen

I met up with some friends and coworkers for dinner after work and we decided to check out M Street Kitchen. This used to be La Grande Orange. The menu seemed to be the same. There is a variety of items from sushi to fried chicken to burgers.

Speaking of burgers, I ordered the cheeseburger. It comes on a typical sesame seed bun. The meat is house ground all natural beef. It wasn’t overly flavorful and a little bit on the small side. The meat flavor did not come through as with other burgers I have tried. It comes topped with lettuce, onions, pickles, tomatoes and Russian dressing. Finally, it was topped with shredded cheddar cheese. The cheese wasn’t fully melted and tasted almost cold. Overall I was a little disappointed as everything else on the menu seemed so flavorful and fresh.

Townhouse

Townhouse is a newer restaurant in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. Although I had a couple of bad experiences when it first opened, I had to give it a few more chances as it is a great spot. It has a lounge/gastropub. There are plenty of beers on tap and a very cool bar area where you can watch a game or just hangout.Best of all, they started $5 burgers every Tuesday and $3 brewery of the month beers. That’s $8 dollars for a burger and beer. Not a bad deal at all.

On to the burger. I ordered the Townhouse burger. It comes on a brioche bun. It was good and not overly greasy, which is a pet peeve of mine. The meat came in two different thin patties. This was probably the worst part of the burger. I wish they would have ground the amount of meat used for both patties together into one because it would have been juicier than the two smaller patties. It came topped with goat cheese, arugula, tomato, red onion and pickles. It usually comes with mushrooms, but if you are regular reader you would know that I am not a big fan of mushrooms so I did not get them on the burger. Overall, I was a little disappointed in the dryness in the meat but will probably go back as the deal is too good to pass up and it is a great location and atmosphere.
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L.A. Buns

I used to live in West Hollywood. I am man enough to admit this. While I lived there I was fortunate to live next to one of the best car wash places in the city. But more importantly on the corner next to the car wash is a hidden gem called L.A. Buns. This is a cash only shack serving burgers, hot dogs and Mexican food. There were plenty of football Saturday and Sundays were it was very easy to go grab something from the corner rather than cook. Apparently I am on a standard burger run here. It is hard to judge these against the gourmet burgers as the quality of meat is so different. Sometimes you need to eat quick and cheap.

Without any further ado, on to the meat. This is one of my favorite standard burgers. It comes on a standard sesame bun. The meat is cooked on a griddle and is always juicy and seasoned with seasoning salt. The best part about this burger is that they do not skimp on the toppings. It comes with iceberg lettuce, pickles, diced onions, tomato and a slathering of 1000 island dressing. I hadn’t eaten there in a couple of years, which ment that I had to take a bite before taking a picture, but it still lived up to its billing. One of the best standard burgers around.

Hamburger Habit

A coworker mentioned Hamburger Habit to me a little while ago and I finally got out to try it. I normally review high-end burgers making this review a little difficult. This place is an icon in West LA. It seems like it is straight out of the 50’s. It had the red and white color scheme and crazy pictures and news articles on the walls.

On to the burger. These are simple burgers. You  can choose additional toppings like lettuce, tomato, cheese and chili. I got “The Big Scene”, which comes with lettuce, tomato and dressing. I ordered it without tomato. The bun was a standard sesame seed bun that was lightly toasted on the griddle. The patty were thin and browned on the outside but still juicy. Overall it was a really good standard burger. Better than any fast food burger or chain restaurant burger out there. I also got the chili fries. The fries were very crispy and the chili was very meaty and flavorful. My one objection was that they over salted the fries causing the whole thing to be a bit too salty.

Pretzel Burger

I didn’t have a new place to review for this so I figured I might try something of my own. One of my specialties has become making soft pretzels. I was making soft pretzels for a family function and decided to save some of the dough and make it into a hamburger bun. I have always enjoyed pretzels and love a good pretzel burger.

I used 80/20 ground beef seasoned with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and Worcestershire sauce. I grilled the patty and toasted the pretzel bun on the grill as well. I didn’t have any lettuce but topped the burger with pickle, red onions and brown mustard.

I definitely got the taste of the meat first with the crunch of the pickles and the onions. Then the saltiness and the the pretzel flavor really comes through. Overall it was a very good creation and something I will have to try again in the future.

Jack N’ Jill’s

We went to Jack N’ Jill’s for lunch a while back and kind of forgot about it. The Santa Monica location is a bit on the small side and there is a lack of seating. The first time I went I got the rotisserie chicken, which I highly recommend. They also have a lot of pastries that I have not tried, but they look amazing.

On to the meat! I ordered the Hickory Burger. The burger comes on standard bun. The meat is nothing special, probably a standard 80/20 blend. It was cooked well to medium. It comes topped with cheddar, tomato and lettuce. It also comes with bacon. If you read this blog you know my feelings on bacon. But this was a perfect application of the delicious meat. The burger stood on its own and the bacon was purely complimentary and that is a good thing. Bacon can really steal the show making it a less impressive burger. I will say the star of the show was the hickory barbeque sauce. It was tangy and sweet and complimented the rest of the burger. There is also an aioli on the burger, but I feel it is wasted since it gets lost behind the barbeque sauce.

Kalbi Burger

My coworker Lindsey tipped me off to Kalbi Burger and I purchased the Groupon a while back and realized I needed to use it before it expired. It is not quite what I was expecting based on what I read. I thought it would be more of a upscale place but it is really just a typical burger place in a strip mall in Koreatown. We also ordered the garlic fries to share, which I highly recommend as they were still crispy even though they had a good amount of garlic on them.

On to the burger. I ordered the Kalbi Burger (I figured this made sense since it’s the restaurant’s namesake). First off I totally missed where it said that all burgers are cooked medium-well. The patty was still juicy but would have been better cooked medium. The meat is made of ground beef rib and chuck. It was quite flavorful, but not quite the meaty flavor of some others. The bun was a sort of brioche-style bun that held together well while eating the burger. The burger came topped with American cheese, romaine lettuce and tomato. The differentiator in this burger was the Korean vinaigrette and Kalbi aioli. This is really where all of the flavor of this burger comes from. It really tasted like getting bulgogi at a Korean BBQ place. It was a very interesting burger and would recommend checking it out if you are in the area.